The present invention relates generally to cheesemaking, and more particularly to a cheese block forming machine for continuously making compressed blocks of cheese with a tower having two sections capable of having different vacuum pressures simultaneously.
Cheese block formers are commonly used to produce large blocks of cheeses. They generally do so by providing a tower or column having a large interior area. At the top of the column, a mixture of curd and whey is fed into the column under a vacuum. As the mixture flows down through the column, the whey is drained out of the mixture and the curd, under its own weight, becomes a solid cheese pillar. At the bottom of the column, the pillar is cut into blocks using a cutting apparatus, such as a guillotine blade. The cheese is prepared for packaging and shipment.
To be effective, the machines must be rugged so as to minimize maintenance and labor expenses, efficient, and capable of producing a variety of cheese types (ie., cheddar, colby, monterey jack, mozzarella, brick or muenster). Further, the block formers must produce cheese blocks that have consistent weights from block to block and have a uniform moisture content. Finally, the block formers themselves should allow for independent operation, or for operation in conjunction with multiple cheese block formers.
There have been many attempts to properly mass-produce cheese blocks using large cheese block formers in the prior art, but most have fallen short in at least one of a number of categories. One example is that the prior art processes have not provided for continuous cheese block production. That is, when a cheese block is cut, the vacuum had to be shut off so as to accommodate the opening of the guillotine blade in preparation for cutting the cheese block. Once the vacuum was shut off, curd feed could not be drawn into the block former. After the guillotine was closed, the vacuum could be turned on again. However, time is required to achieve the vacuum necessary to allow curd feed to begin. Therefore, the prior art processes required a certain amount of downtime, and thus there lacked continuity in the cheese block forming processes. Further, downtime in general adds to production expenses and reduces overall efficiency.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a cheese block former that solves the aforementioned problem, thus allowing large blocks of cheese to be produced continuously and without significant down time.